Fritz Sager, and Patrick Overeem, eds., The European Public Servant: A Shared Administrative Identity? Colchester: ECPR Press, 2015. 326pp. Hardback £65.00, ISBN: 9781907301742 Paperback £30.00, ISBN: 9781785522338 Fritz Sager, Christian Rosser, Céline Mavrot, and Pascal Y. Hurni. A Transatlantic History of Public Administration. Analyzing the USA, Germany and France. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2018. 224 pp. Hardback £67.50, ISBN: 9781788113748 E‐book €25, eISBN: 9781788113755

• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Author: Anna Malandrino
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13343

166 Public Administration Review • Januar y | Fe brua ry 202 1

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 81, Iss. 1, pp. 166–169. © 2021 by

The American Society for Public

Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13343.

Fritz Sager, and Patrick Overeem, eds., The European Public

Servant: A Shared Administrative Identity? Colchester: ECPR

Press, 2015. 326 pp. Hardback £65.00, ISBN:

9781907301742 Paperback £30.00, ISBN:9781785522338

Fritz Sager, Christian Rosser, Céline Mavrot, and Pascal Y.

Hurni. A Transatlantic History of Public Administration.

Analyzing the USA, Germany and France. Cheltenham:

Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2018. 224 pp. Hardback

£67.50, ISBN: 9781788113748 E-book €25,

eISBN:9781788113755

Introduction

The books reviewed here offer an original key to

understand western public administration and

public service culture at both the individual

and the organizational levels. While the first is a

collective work revealing a multifaceted investigation

that employs a variety of research methods, the

second is conceived as a coherent narrative and

draws eminently upon public administration theory.

Together, they significantly advance knowledge in

the field of national bureaucracies in Europe and the

United States, as well as shedding light on some often-

overlooked aspects of such major policy actors.

The perspectives adopted in these works are often

neglected in scholarly studies despite their centrality

to understanding public administration thought

and praxis. The two books include a variety of

analytical levels, ranging from theoretical debates to

administrative practice and perceptions. Moreover,

their introduction of original viewpoints into the

academic debate is not only likely to productively

affect research and theory but also to confer more

awareness on the public servants’ role vis-à-vis political

power and policy making.

The public servant figure is understood here as having

a formal appointment and a duty to serve the public, in

line with prevailing contemporary conceptions (see, for

instance, Kettl2019). This conception is the ultimate

stage of historical debates over whether the adviser

should be primarily accountable to the ruled or the

rulers. This aspect is carefully dealt with, particularly

through Paul’s chapter in The European Public Servant,

and represents one of the main highlights that is

brought to our attention.

In the following lines, I will emphasize the most

noteworthy features of each book while underscoring

the intersections within and between them. Public

Administration, when capitalized, is understood as a

discipline.

Searching for a Minimum Common

Denominator for Public Service National

Traditions within Europe

The European Public Servant answers four main

questions as outlined in Part One by Sager and

Overeem, pivoting on the public servant conception

throughout the history of European thought, the

relationships between European and American ideas

on public servants, the convergence of conceptions,

and the identification of a shared notion of public

servant as a building block for a common European

administrative identity. Raadschelders offers a

synchronic fresco of public servant conceptions

in different administrative cultures, as well as a

diachronic literature review. The picture provided

is as sharp as the methodological guidelines for

future research suggested and the questions posed.

Unsurprisingly, many of the contributions featured in

the book refer to his chapter as a benchmark.

Part Two, which addresses older notions of public

service, starts with Paul’s reflections on the advice

offered to the ruler. The underlying rationale is

Reviewed by: Anna Malandrino

Anna Malandrino is a postdoctoral

scholar at the Department of Political and

Social Sciences of the University of Bologna.

Her research is anchored in the public

policy and administration field and focuses

on evidence-based policy, education

policy, administrative culture, street-level

bureaucracy, transnational cooperation,

and research methodology. She has been a

visiting scholar at the Center for European

Studies of Harvard University and has

worked as a PhD researcher and lecturer in

Public Law, Ethics in Public Administration,

and Public Procurement at the University

of Turin. In 2019, she won the Franco Levi

award for the best PhD dissertation on

administrative reform.

E-mail: malandrino.anna@gmail.com

Book Reviews

Galia Cohen, Editor